Brian K. Sims is not only a civil rights advocate, but he’s also a policy attorney, public speaker, and the first openly LGBT individual to be elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and to the Pennsylvania Legislature. He represents the 182nd District in Center City Philadelphia.
“It was very simple,” he says about getting into politics. “I looked around and told myself I knew I could do a better job.” He also says he always knew he wanted to be a lawyer. From the time he was a teen, Sims wanted to be involved with Civil Rights. “Advocacy and politics seemed to be a natural extension of my need to do more,” he says.
Representative Sims’s parents were both high-ranking Army lieutenants colonels. “It was never an issue of wait until your father gets home,” Sims says. “My mother was enough.”
There was plenty of travel, and the family lived everywhere from Kansas to Alaska. Sims reflected fondly on these times: “Customs and accents change, but people are the same no matter where you go. We’re all human beings.”
As captain of the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania college football team, he came out after leading his team to the Division II National Championship game. To this day, Sims remains the only former NCAA college football captain to do so. When we talk about coming out in his last semester in college, Sims says he knew, growing up, he wasn’t straight — before he knew he
was gay. His family was unaware until his coming out.
Recently Sims stepped down as president of the board of directors for Equality Pennsylvania
and as chairman of GALLOP (Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia) to devote time to
running for office. And though he is no longer heading up these organizations, he is still actively
involved. He works with a group called Campus Pride that helps colleges and high schools launch Gay Straight Alliances across the country. The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund is an organization that believes in electing LGBT leaders to change America’s politics, and Sims is a member ofits National Campaign Board.
A public figure in every sense of the word, Sims has been heard on NPR’s “Radio Times” and has
been profiled in OutSports. For Sims, it’s all about education and exposure. Many Pennsylvanians
don’t know how they stand on gay marriage or adoption, he says, but they do know that
government laws aren’t fair when it comes to discrimination in the state. There are still many places in the state where someone of the LGBT community can be asked to leave restaurants, hotels, stores, or their job.
This interview came just off the heels of President Obama’s Second Inauguration, and Sims
was thrilled with the speech given. “It was incredible to hear him acknowledge civil rights of
every American, no matter if it was regarding women’s rights or the rights of LGBT individuals in
our country.”
“I do legitimately think we’ll see the LGBT civil rights battle won in the next five to 10 years,” Sims
says. “We’re literally making history.”
In his free time, Sims hangs out with his 182-pound, 7-year-old Newfoundland, Hannegan (she’s
named after an Irish pub he once worked at in Santa Cruz, California). They swim in the
summer, as Sims lives along Boathouse Row in Philadelphia. He’s also an avid runner, participating in marathons.
